An Afghan refugee has been convicted of murder in a case that shocked Albuquerque's Muslim community - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
An Afghan refugee was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings that shook Albuquerque's Muslim community during the summer of 2022.
Muhammad Syed faces life in prison for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein on July 26, 2022. He also will stand trial in the coming months in the other two slayings.
During the trial, prosecutors presented cellphone data that showed his phone was in the area when the shooting occurred, and a ballistics expert testified that casings and projectiles recovered from the scene had been fired from a rifle that was found hidden under Syed's bed.
Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had no evidence that Syed was the one who pulled the trigger. They said others who lived in his home could also access his phone, the vehicle and the rifle.
The defense called no witnesses; Syed tearfully declined to testify in his own defense.
Prosecutors on Monday said they were pleased that jurors agreed it was a deliberate killing. However, they acknowledged that no testimony during the weeklong trial nor any court filings addressed a possible motive or detailed any interactions that Syed might have had with Hussein before the killing.
"We were not able to uncover anything that we would indicate would be a motive that would explain this," Deputy District Attorney David Waymire said outside the courthouse. "As best we can tell, this could be a case of a serial killer where there's a motive known only to them and not something that we can really understand."
Defense attorneys said the conviction would be appealed once the other two trials are complete. They too said a motive has yet to be uncovered.
The three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the crimes. It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors as the "willful and very deliberate" actions of another member of the Muslim community.
Syed, who speaks Pashto and required the help of translators throughout the trial, settled in the U.S. with his family several years before the killings. Prosecutors described him during previous court hearings as having a violent history. His public defenders argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
Syed also is accused of killing Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city's south side.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain's older brother, Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain, was there Monday to hear the verdict. He has been following the cases closely and like others in the community is troubled that there's still no answer as to why his brother and the others were targeted.
A student leader at the University of New Mexico who was active in politics and later worked for the city of Española, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain had a bright future, his brother said. They had come to the United States from Pakistan for educational and economic opportunities.
He said the life they had planned was just starting to come to fruition when his brother was killed.
"It was a big loss," he said.
Police also identified Syed as the suspect in the killing of another Muslim man in 2021, but no charges have been filed in that case.
Authorities issued a public plea for help following the third killing in the summer of 2022. They shared photographs of a vehicle believed to be involved in the crimes, resulting in tips that led to Syed.
Syed denied involvement in the killings after being stopped more than 100 miles from Albuquerque. He told authorities he was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family, saying he was concerned about the killings in Albuquerque.
The judge prohibited prosecutors from directly introducing as evidence statements Syed made to a detective while being questioned. Defense attorneys argued that Syed's rights were violated because the detective, through an interpreter, did not adequately inform Syed of his right to a court-appointed attorney.
During the trial, prosecutors gave jurors a rundown of what happened the night of the first killing: Hussein parked at his apartment complex at around 10 p.m. and had just stepped out of his vehicle with his keys still in his hand when gunfire erupted.
"He stood no chance," prosecutor Jordan Machin said during closing arguments. Machin said Syed had been lying in wait and that he continued to shoot even as Hussein lay on the ground.
Officers found Hussein with multiple wounds that stretched from his neck down to his feet. Investigators testified that some of the high-caliber rounds went through his body and pierced the car.
Prosecutors showed photos of Hussein's bullet-riddled car and said the victim was killed nearly instantly.
Supreme Court rejects appeal by former New Mexico county commissioner banned for Jan. 6 insurrection - By Morgan Lee, Nicholas Riccardi And Mark Sherman Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory over Trump.
At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don't have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates.
"We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office," the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion.
The outcome of Griffin's case could bolster efforts to hold other state and local elected officials accountable for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack.
Griffin, a Republican, was convicted separately in federal court of entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 and received a 14-day prison sentence. The sentence was offset by time served after his arrest in Washington, where he had returned to protest Biden's 2021 inauguration. That conviction is under appeal.
Griffin contends that he entered the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 without recognizing that it had been designated as a restricted area and that he attempted to lead a crowd in prayer using a bullhorn, without engaging in violence.
The recent ruling in the Trump case shut down a push in dozens of states to end Trump's Republican candidacy for president over claims he helped instigate the insurrection to try to prevent Biden, a Democrat, from replacing him in the White House in 2020.
The accusations of insurrection against Griffin were filed on behalf of three New Mexico residents by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning group that also brought the lawsuit in Colorado to disqualify Trump.
CREW has outlined the case for investigating several current state legislators who went to Washington on Jan. 6.
In Griffin's 2022 trial in state district court, New Mexico Judge Francis Mathew recognized the Jan. 6 attack as an insurrection and ruled that Griffin aided that insurrection, without engaging in violence, contributing to a delay in Congress' election certification proceedings.
Griffin's appeal of the disqualification asserted that only Congress, and not a state court, has the power to enforce the anti-insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment by legislation, and it urged the Supreme Court to rule on whether the events on Jan. 6 constituted an "insurrection" as defined in the Constitution.
It also invoked Griffin's rights to free speech protections.
"If the decision ... is to stand, at least in New Mexico, it is now the crime of insurrection to gather people to pray together for the United States of America on the unmarked restricted grounds of the Capitol building," Florida-based defense attorney Peter Ticktin argued on behalf of Griffin in court filings.
At trial, Mathew, the judge, called Griffin's free-speech arguments self-serving and not credible, noting that the then-commissioner spread lies about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump in a series of speeches at rallies during a cross-country journey starting in New Mexico, calling on crowds to go with him to Washington on Jan. 6 and join the "war" over the presidential election results.
Mathew said recordings by a videographer accompanying Griffin outside the U.S. Capitol showed that the county commissioner "incited the mob, even after seeing members of the mob a short distance away attack police officers and violently try to break into the Capitol building."
The New Mexico Supreme Court later refused to hear the case after Griffin missed procedural deadlines.
Griffin on Monday said the Supreme Court took "the coward's way out" in dismissing his appeal without comment, calling it "the greatest attack on our democracy to date."
"When civil courtrooms can remove elected officials, it sets a very dangerous precedent," Griffin said. "Personally, I'm very disappointed and equally concerned about the future of our political system."
On the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack this year, Griffin cast himself as the victim of political persecution as he spoke to a gathering in the rural community of Gillette, Wyoming, at the invitation of a county Republican Party.
"God is really allowing me to experience some amazing days," Griffin said. "Jan. 6 was a day like no other. It was a day where a type of patriotism was expressed that I'd never seen before, and I was honored to be there."
In 2019, Griffin forged a group of rodeo acquaintances into the promotional group called Cowboys for Trump, which staged horseback parades to support Trump's conservative message about gun rights, immigration controls and abortion restrictions.
While still a county commissioner, Griffin joined with Republican colleagues in refusing to certify results of the June 2022 primary election based on distrust of the voting systems used to tally the vote, even though the county's election official said there were no problems. The board ultimately certified the election on a 2-1 vote with Griffin still voting no based on a "gut feeling."
Griffin withstood a recall petition drive in 2021. After his disqualification from office, Griffin was tried and acquitted by a jury in his home county in March 2023 of allegations that he declined to register and disclose donors to Cowboys for Trump.
Movie armorer challenges conviction in fatal shooting of cinematographer by Alec Baldwin - Associated Press
A movie set armorer is challenging her conviction on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust," court records released Monday show.
Defense attorneys for "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed a request for a new trial and urged a judge to release the defendant from jail as deliberations proceed.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury this month in the shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal in October 2021. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
In an emergency court motion, defense attorneys Jason Bowles and Monnica Barreras asserted that the jury instructions in the case "could confuse the jury and lead to a nonunanimous verdict." Similar objections to the jury instructions were rejected at trial.
Gutierrez-Reed could be sentenced as soon as April 15 under the current scheduling orders from Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a felony sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held pending sentencing at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun's hammer, but not the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed at a two-week trial for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust" where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun safety protocols.
"Rust" assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
Colorado College researchers document abuses at NM immigration detention centers - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A new report documenting ongoing abuses at two federal immigration detention facilities in New Mexico concludes the facilities should close, and everyone inside should be released.
Three undergraduate researchers from Colorado College published the report on March 13, detailing how two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in Milan and Estancia — and immigration detention in general — put migrants’ safety, wellbeing and rights at risk.
“ICE has long evaded accountability for such abhorrent violations of national detention standards – an outcome facilitated by flawed oversight mechanisms that consistently fail to address inhumane conditions in facilities,” the report states. “The migrants whose stories are shared in this report came to the U.S. in search of asylum and a better life but were met with a system that criminalizes and dehumanizes them.”
Based out of Albuquerque as part of Colorado College’s Activism Institute, the students spent six weeks in November and December conducting extensive interviews with 20 asylum seekers detained in civil immigration custody in the facilities. They did so in partnership with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
Under contracts with ICE, the Cibola County Correctional Center and the Torrance County Detention Facility must follow guidelines set under the 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards.
Researchers found several examples of the facilities and their staff violating the detention standards.
The study reports violations such as excessive use of force by guards, inappropriate sexual assault prevention and response, inadequate medical care, insufficient access to legal information, poor and unsanitary food service, unsatisfactory provision of personal hygiene items and limited recreation availability for people detained.
Diana Buda, Daisy Gomez Rivera, and Natalia Ocampo are the researchers from Colorado College. They presented their findings in a virtual webinar on March 11.
Gomez Rivera said they found “clear and obvious violations” of the detention standards, and the standards themselves are not doing enough to protect people in ICE custody.
“It is a deep injustice to continue to subject people to cruel imprisonment,” she said. “The time is now to shut down Cibola County Correctional Center and Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico and release all individuals held at these facilities. By ending the detention of human beings, we can begin to address the undignified treatment of migrants.”
The entire 96-page report can be read here.
VENEZUELAN HELD AT TORRANCE DESCRIBES ABUSES
In the report, Jesus Rosales Gonzales, a 25-year-old agricultural engineering student from Venezuela who is incarcerated in Torrance, said he was brought there “like many others by being tricked.”
“They had told us that they were going to allow us to fight for asylum outside of detention,” Rosales Gonzales says in his sworn statement based on his interview for the study conducted in Spanish. “Next thing I know they are putting us on buses and handcuffing us.”
To win asylum after someone crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, they must first show they have a “credible fear of persecution or torture” if they were to return to their home country.
Rosales Gonzales said he had no privacy during his credible fear interview and the translator didn’t translate everything he said.
“People who leave the center with positive credible fear interview results are told by the officers that they will die in this country, that they won’t survive, and that no one wants them here,” he said.
He said four rooms in his unit are “inundated with dirty water.”
“We have told the officers but they have not done anything about it,” Rosales Gonzales said.
He said staff give incarcerated migrants tiny pieces of soap and low-quality shampoo twice per week, very small toothbrushes and not enough toothpaste to brush their teeth well.
The bed sheets and clothes are too thin and do not protect incarcerated migrants from the cold, he said.
Rosales Gonzales said staff give them very little food of poor quality.
“Some of the food they give us looks very grotesque, almost like it is animal food,” he said. “We tell the officers that the portions are too small and they tell us that the chef decides the portions and that we can survive off of that. I don’t believe them because we feel weaker every day.”
He said the guards have physically, psychologically and verbally abused all the migrants at Torrance.
“I fled my country because I was scared they were going to kill me or that I would be incarcerated, but look at me here,” Rosales Gonzales said.
LAWMAKERS RESPOND
The report has attracted responses from state and federal lawmakers representing New Mexico.
At the webinar, Claire Dudley Chavez, policy director for New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martinez, said he “remains wholeheartedly 100% committed to getting the Dignity Not Detention bill across the finish line next session.”
The proposal, which would have amended state law to bar local governments from entering or renewing contracts with ICE to detain people for civil violations of federal immigration law, has died twice in the New Mexico Legislature in as many years.
“We had a bit of a heartbreaker this session, but we will not give up, and this work will be really important and significant as we continue to push for the full passage of that bill,” Dudley Chavez said.
In response to the report, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said, “For years now, I’ve been urging ICE to take immediate action to remedy unsafe, inhumane conditions at Torrance County Detention Facility.”
“ICE’s continued failure to meet basic standards for humanitarian conditions is deeply concerning, and it’s why I’ve repeatedly called on them to terminate their contract with the detention facility,” Heinrich said. “I won’t stop fighting until this finally happens.”
Also in response to the report, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said, “Torrance County Detention Facility has repeatedly failed inspections, and the Department of Homeland Security OIG reports are alarming.”
“Anyone in the care of the United States should be treated with the utmost respect,” Luján said. “I have written letters and continually pushed the Department of Homeland Security to do better in regards to Torrance, and have called to end their contract with this facility. Now is the time to make real and lasting change.”
Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday $10 million in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act was awarded to six tribal nations and pueblos in New Mexico.
The governor announced the funding during an event at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Santo Domingo Pueblo, Sandia Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Jicarilla Apache Nation and Nambé Pueblo received funding from the law.
“This week, we are very happy… that we’ve been selected to receive funding for one of our broadband projects. These funds will be instrumental as we go forward. With the expansion of both physical and communication infrastructure for our public library” Laguna Pueblo Acting Gov. Gaylord Siow said.
The funds will go towards broadband expansion projects, child development centers and libraries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when most work and school was virtual, lack of broadband availability in rural areas became apparent to the point where some school districts set up Wi-Fi hotspots at fire station
One of the guests at the event was Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden and American Rescue Plan Coordinator Gene Sperling.
Sperling described the history and importance of ARPA and other COVID-19 recovery legislation.
He brought up the Great Recession where recovery was long and hard and the recovery attempts under then-President Barack Obama were not strong enough to bring the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster.
COVID-19 recovery efforts, therefore, had to be strong and lasting to work.
“So the focus here was having the American Rescue Plan that was powerful enough, not just to get us out of recovery, but to get everyone out,” Sperling said. “The fact that the design here was by design for everybody on board is one we should understand and we should insist on as we deal with future economic challenges.”
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed inequities that previously existed, but were exacerbated by the pandemic, Sperling said.
“Ohkay Owingeh appreciates the opportunity to engage in endeavors and help us maybe even catch up to any issues that we suffer and no convenient for some way library, community center is a place where our people gathered not only to communicate, but to pass on tradition,” Ohkay Owingeh Gov. Larry Phillips, Jr. said.
All of the pueblo and tribal leadership in attendance expressed appreciation for the federal funding they received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will continue to leverage the funds invested in our tribal communities to support and promote the health, welfare and advancement of all people as well as our culture and landscape,” Siow said.
The funding becomes available to the tribal nations and pueblos once the paperwork is signed, Lujan Grisham said.
Of the $10 million ARPA funding, Santo Domingo Pueblo will receive $6.8 million, Sandia Pueblo will receive $1.3 million, Laguna Pueblo will receive $1.06 million, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo will receive $313,000, Pojoaque Pueblo will receive $276,000, Jicarilla Apache Nation will receive $103,000 and Nambé Pueblo will receive $67,000.
U.S. Supreme Court upholds decisions barring Couy Griffin from ever holding elected office in NM - by Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday extinguished Couy Griffin’s last hope of ever holding elected office again in New Mexico.
New Mexico’s courts in 2023 disqualified Griffin, a convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist and former Otero County commissioner, from being an elected official under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because Griffin had violated his oath to support the U.S. Constitution.
A state district court judge cited Griffin’s participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, along with “surrounding planning, mobilization and incitement.” He also called those actions an “insurrection against the Constitution.”
After the New Mexico Supreme Court denied Griffin’s appeal, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case in May 2023.
Then on Monday, federal justices denied his petition.
The judges do not explain why they deny these kinds of petitions, but they did signal their position on Griffin’s case when they unanimously ruled on March 4 in a separate but related case involving former President Donald Trump.
In that opinion, the justices quoted from previous cases saying state governments retain the power to set out their own qualifications for elected officials.
“Although the Fourteenth Amendment restricts state power, nothing in it plainly withdraws from the States this traditional authority,” the justices wrote. “We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office.”
A Florida-based lawyer who helped write Griffin’s petition said he would return our request for comment. We will update this story with that response.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) brought the disqualification cases against Griffin and Trump. They had argued the justices should not hear Griffin’s case because he didn’t follow the rules when he appealed the state judge’s decision, and didn’t fix his appeal when the New Mexico Supreme Court gave him the chance.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder said Monday it’s now up to the states “to fulfill their duty under Section 3 to remove from office anyone who broke their oath by participating in the January 6th insurrection.”
“By refusing to take up this appeal, the Supreme Court keeps in place the finding that January 6th was an insurrection, and ensures that states can still apply the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause to state officials,” Bookbinder said. “Crucially, this decision reinforces that every decision-making body that has substantively considered the issue has found that January 6th was an insurrection, and Donald Trump engaged in that insurrection.”
After the justices denied Griffin’s petition, he took to social media to express his disappointment. “I don’t even know what to say,” he wrote.
He quickly posted three more times to say he understands he is now only eligible to be elected as president or vice president, to ask Trump to pick him as his running mate and to attack the person who replaced him on the Otero County Commission.
Pinned to the top of his X profile on Monday was a March 15 plea for donations to cover his legal expenses, which had raised nearly $20,000.
Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Shaun Griswold for questions: info@sourcenm.com. Follow Source New Mexico on Facebook and Twitter.
Jurors weigh fate of Afghan refugee charged with murder in a case that shocked Muslim community — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Prosecutors on Friday wrapped up their case against an Afghan refugee on charges that he gunned down a man in 2022 in what turned out to be the first of three ambush-style killings involving members of the Muslim community in New Mexico's largest city.
Muhammad Syed, who settled in the U.S. several years ago with his family, quickly became the main suspect after authorities issued photographs of a vehicle believed to be involved in the shootings. He was taken into custody after being pulled over in the vehicle more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Albuquerque.
He told authorities at the time he was concerned about the killings and was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family. He denied involvement in the killings.
Syed, who speaks Pashto and required the help of translators throughout the trial, has remained in custody without bond since his arrest in August 2022. He is charged with three counts of murder and four charges of tampering with evidence.
Syed, 53, faces separate trials for each victim, the first being 41-year-old Aftab Hussein. The other trials will happen in the coming months.
When asked by the judge Friday whether he wished to testify, Syed stood up and adjusted his headphones as a translator relayed the question. He choked back tears and began to cry. He eventually said in Pashto that he would reserve his right to remain silent.
The defense called no witnesses, and prosecutors did not address a motive or discuss any interactions that Syed might have had with Hussein.
Jurors were scheduled to begin their deliberations Monday morning.
Prosecutors detailed the night of the shooting: It was around 10 p.m. when Hussein pulled up to his apartment complex and parked. He had just stepped out of his vehicle with keys still in hand when gunfire erupted.
"He stood no chance," prosecutor Jordan Machin said during closing arguments, alleging that Syed was lying in wait and that he continued to shoot as Hussein was on the ground.
Officers found Hussein with multiple wounds that stretched from his neck down to his feet. Investigators testified that some of the high-caliber rounds went through his body and pierced the car.
While questioning a firearms and ballistic expert with the police department, Deputy District Attorney David Waymire pulled out a rifle that had been seized during a search of Syed's home. It had been found under the defendant's bed. Waymire also showed jurors bags of spent casings and bullet fragments collected from the scene.
In a yellow envelop was a bullet that had been retrieved by medical examiners from Hussein's body.
The expert said testing determined the casings and projectiles were fired from Syed's rifle.
Cellphone records also indicated that Syed was at the scene about 20 minutes before the shooting and that it appeared he left right after and headed home, prosecutors said. They also introduced as evidence a note in Syed's phone that referred to testing the rifle on the date that Hussein was killed.
Previous court filings described Syed as having a violent history, none of which was mentioned in court. His public defenders have argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
Defense attorneys attempted to introduce doubt throughout the trial, saying prosecutors had no evidence that Syed was the one who pulled the trigger. They suggested other people who lived in Syed's home also had access to his phone, his vehicle and the rifle.
They also argued there were no fingerprints or DNA collected during the investigation that would implicate Syed.
Megan Mitsunaga, one of Syed's attorneys, told jurors during closing arguments that her client was innocent and that investigators can sometimes get "tunnel vision" once they seize on a suspect and stop looking at evidence that doesn't support that person's guilt. She suggested there were gaps that should leave jurors with reasonable doubt.
"How is that fair to Mr. Syed, how is that fair to this community to have law enforcement pick and chose which evidence they want you to hear about?" she said.
Machin said it was Syed who tried to flee to Texas under the cover of darkness a day after authorities went to the public for help in identifying a suspect. She said the license plate and hub caps on Syed's car had been changed and that he had his phone — which was password protected — with him when he was stopped.
The other two victims include Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1 while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city's south side.
Family members of the victims and other community members have said they are still struggling to understand what was behind the killings.
New Mexico authorities detain man in fatal shooting of state police officer — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A suspect in the shooting death of a New Mexico state police officer was captured Sunday by law enforcement officers in the Albuquerque area based on a tip from a gas station clerk, authorities said.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office detained 33-year-old Jaremy Smith of Marion, South Carolina, in the southwestern reaches of Albuquerque after the clerk notified authorities of a man who fit Smith's description, Sheriff John Allen said at a brief news conference.
South Carolina authorities have identified Smith as a person of interest in the killing of a local paramedic whose stolen car was involved in Friday's fatal shooting of New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare along Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari.
Allen said Smith was located walking on the outskirts of a residential area and was wounded by gunfire as officers pursued him on foot. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment under police guard. No medical condition was given.
"A foot pursuit ensued," Allen said. "Shots were fired. Some shots strike Smith, we don't know the amount right now or how many, that's still under investigation. But Smith was then taken into custody without further incident."
State Police Chief Troy Weisler said an investigation is in the early stages about Smith's movements since the fatal shooting of Hare but that the detention Sunday allows people an opportunity to begin to grieve for the slain officer. Weisler and Allen did not discuss possible criminal charges and declined to provide further information.
"Everything is really preliminary right now on the investigation, so we're not going to get into any of the details," Weisler said.
Authorities said Hare was dispatched about 5 a.m. Friday to help a motorist in a white BMW with a flat tire on I-40.
Hare parked behind the BMW, and a man got out, approached the patrol car on the passenger side, then shot the officer without warning. They said the motorist then walked to the driver's side of the police vehicle, shot Hare again, and pushed him into the back seat before taking off in the patrol vehicle.
State Police later learned that the white BMW was reported missing in South Carolina and that it belonged to a woman who was killed there last week, Phonesia Machado-Fore, 52, a Marion County paramedic.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina has reported on its Facebook page that Machado-Fore's body was found about 6:15 p.m. Friday outside of Lake View in neighboring Dillon County. Her family had reported her missing Thursday evening. The Dillon County Coroner's Office has scheduled an autopsy for Monday.
Marion County Sheriff Brian Wallace on Sunday said he was relieved to learn of Smith's detention.
"I believe that I speak for many here in Marion County when I tell you that I am overwhelmed with relief knowing that Jaremy Smith is in custody," Wallace said in a statement posted on Facebook. "At this time, Marion County Sheriff's Office has no charges on Jaremy Smith. Therefore, he will remain in the custody of New Mexico State Police to face charges."
A call to the public defenders' office in New Mexico was not answered and it was unclear whether Smith had a legal representative.
In a news release, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed gratitude to the person who spotted Smith and reported to authorities, calling the suspect's detention a "major step toward justice" for Hare's family.
Arizona legislation to better regulate rehab programs targeted by Medicaid scams is moving forward — Anita Snow, Associated Press
A Navajo state senator said Friday she's hoping for final approval of her bill to tighten regulations for rehab facilities amid widespread fraud that has bilked hundreds of millions in Arizona Medicaid dollars and scammed hundreds of Native Americans seeking help for addictions.
Senate Bill 1655, sponsored by Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, was unanimously approved by the Senate this week and sent to the House, where it received a first reading and was assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee.
Hatathlie said she anticipates a vote by the full House could come as soon as Thursday, adding that she urges constituents to voice their support for the legislation.
"This bill will ensure checks and balances. This issue has been going on long before the pandemic, and Native people have been largely affected," said Hatathlie, a Democrat from Coal Mine Mesa on the Navajo Nation who represents Arizona's 6th District. "Passage of Senate Bill 1655 will start a measure of resiliency and healing. It will most importantly communicate to criminals they are not welcome in Arizona!"
The legislative effort comes the same week that relatives of two Native American men who died while in Phoenix rehab programs sued Arizona's Medicaid program and Department of Health Services, alleging insufficient oversight.
The Attorney General's Office said it would not comment on the pending civil action as it continues to prosecute scores of cases against those programs.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes announced in May that they were stepping up an investigation of alleged fraudulent Medicaid billing that began before they took office in 2023.
The charges were submitted mostly through the American Indian Health Program, a Medicaid health plan that allows providers to bill directly for reimbursement of services rendered to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Mayes told Navajo leaders in a report this year that 72 individuals and entities had been indicted so far, 44 of them since she took office, and over $90 million in property and vehicles relating to those cases were seized.
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System has instituted tighter controls, including a six-month moratorium for enrolling new behavioral health clinics for Medicaid billing. The scams' far-reaching consequences became better known through warnings sounded by state and tribal governments outside Arizona.
Hatathlie's proposed law would increase the civil penalty per incidence of noncompliance at rehab facilities from up to $500 to at least $1,500 daily.
It would also require that patients' family members be notified when they arrive at a facility for an evaluation. Employees of residential facilities would have to undergo fingerprint and background checks.
Crystalyne Curley, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, showed her support for Hatathlie's bill the day the Senate approved it.
Reva Stewart, a Navajo activist in Phoenix who helps Native Americans return to their reservations after leaving fraudulent rehab programs, said she worries the legislation may not go far enough to shut down the worst unlicensed facilities because it largely focuses on licensed ones.
"We all want a solution to this problem," Stewart said. "I just want to make sure this solution works."
During early Senate hearings, representatives of assisted living and nursing homes and other facilities that could be affected worried that the penalties may be too high for smaller operations.
Hatathlie said facilities will have a 30-day grace period to bring any violations into compliance. The legislation has gone through many revisions in recent weeks and more adjustments are possible, she added.
"This is a big deal; this is a big problem in Arizona," Republican Senate President Warren Petersen said after Tuesday's vote. "If you're a state agency and you're doing something wrong, don't mess with Senator Hatathlie."
Fourth APD officer resigns while under investigation in DWI corruption case — Elise Kaplan, City Desk ABQ
A fourth Albuquerque Police Department officer has resigned rather than be interviewed as part of an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct by DWI officers.
City Desk ABQ’s Elise Kaplan reports Nelson Ortiz resigned yesterday, according to a news release. It states investigators were attempting to schedule an interview with the officer before he resigned.
Ortiz served on the DWI unit from 2018 to 2021, according to APD. He’d since served in the Motors Unit.
He’s the second officer under investigation to resign this week. Harvey Johnson resigned on Wednesday.
Ortiz and Johnson were two of the five officers who were put on administrative leave in mid-January shortly after news broke that the FBI was investigating corruption within APD’s DWI unit and the office of a local defense attorney, Thomas Clear III.
Two others, Justin Hunt and Honorio Alba resigned in February. Officer Joshua Montaño remains on the force.
No one has been charged in the federal investigation.
Ransomware attack hamstrings three District Attorneys’ offices in NM — Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A ransomware attack impacted three local prosecutors’ offices around New Mexico this week.
Source New Mexico’s Austin Fisher reports someone ran ransomware on servers in four offices connected to the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys Wednesday morning, including the server for the network attorneys use to share court records.
A spokesperson for First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies in Santa Fe and Ninth Judicial District Attorney Quentin Ray in Clovis said their offices were impacted by the attack. He said the case files include any information about people accused of crimes, evidence in their cases, and prosecutors’ own case notes.
The Fifth Judicial District Attorney in Carlsbad was also affected, according to Ray, though they did not return a request for comment.
Marcus Montoya, president of the DA Administrative Office says they’re “still triaging” which cases and hearings the attack impacted. He added that it’s “contained” and ultimately “not as bad as your traditional ransomware attack.” He says the FRI is investigating.
Learn more from Source New Mexico at KUNM.org.